Woman Says Stranger Tried To Kidnap Her Baby At Target

SHAWNEE, Kan. (CBS Local) — A Kansas mom says a woman who approached her as a kind stranger in a Target store tried to steal her baby.

Rachel Youngs says she was shopping in the baby section of the store in Shawnee on Friday when a woman with a dog walked up and complimented her 9-month-old daughter, Waverly.

“I made a comment on how cute her dog was, and she went around to the front of my cart and made a comment about how cute my baby is,” Youngs told WDAF. “She made a comment saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll trade you my dog for your baby,’ and I thought she was just joking.”

After some more pleasantries were exchanged, the woman asked to hold her baby. Youngs says she handed baby Waverly over, but quickly regretted it.

“As she’s holding my baby she started saying weird things, she starts asking me, ‘Do you have a godmother?’ I said no, and she said, ‘I’d love to be your godmother, I’ll split everything 50/50.’ And I was like this is kind of weird, like, who says this to a random person?” Youngs said.

Then she says the conversation became even more disturbing.

“She says, ‘Just so you know, I was arrested for attempted kidnapping.’ That’s when I was like, OK you know what, there’s something wrong,” Youngs said. “All of a sudden, she starts walking off with my daughter. I yelled at her, I said, ‘I need my baby back, please. Give me my baby back.'”

Youngs said she panicked and called out to Target employees to call police. That’s when the woman decided to give Waverly back.

When police arrived, they said they could not arrest the woman because Youngs had chosen to hand her baby over and did give her back.